Effects of Habitat Fragmentation on Birds and Mammals in Landscapes with Different Proportions of Suitable Habitat: A Review

Habitat fragmentation implies a loss of habitat, reduced patch size and an increasing distance between patches, but also an increase of new habitat. Simulations of patterns and geometry of landscapes with decreasing proportion of the suitable habitat give rise to the prediction that the effect of habitat fragmentation on e.g. population size of a species would be primarily through habitat loss in landscape with a high proportion of suitable habitat. However, as the proportion of suitable habitat decreases in the landscape, area and isolation effects start influencing the population size of the species. Hence, the relative importance of pure habitat loss, patch size and isolation are expected to differ at different degrees of habitat fragmentation. This conclusion was supported by a review of studies on birds and mammals in habitat patches in landscapes with different proportions of suitable habitat: the random sample hypothesis was a good predictor of the effects of habitat fragmentation in landscapes with more than 30% of suitable habitat. In these landscapes, habitat fragmentation is primarily habitat loss. However, in landscapes with highly fragmented habitat, patch size and isolation will complement the effect of habitat loss and the loss of species or decline in population size will be greater than expected from habitat loss alone. Habitat patches are parts of the landscape mosaic and the presence of a species in a patch may be a function not only of patch size and isolation, but also of the neighbouring habitat. Habitat generalists may survive in very small patches because they can also utilize resources in the surroundings. Furthermore, the total species diversity across habitats in a given landscape may increase when new patches of habitat are created within the continuous habitat, since new species may be found in these new habitats, even if they are human-made.